MAITI NEPAL - Friends of Maiti Nepal

Who are the Friends of Maiti Nepal?

Friends of Maiti Nepal is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing
the human rights crisis of girl sex trafficking. We support the life-saving work
of Maiti Nepal in Nepal and India, by fundraising, raising awareness of this
issue in the U.S. and seeking solutions to the problem of the long-term
self-sustainability of trafficking victims.

In the coming months, Friends of Maiti Nepal will sponsor a screening
of Andy Levine’s film “The Day My God Died” in Boston. This film exposes
some of the horrors of trafficking, including footage from inside Bombay
brothels known as “the cages,” and the work being done by Maiti Nepal
and other organizations to help victims.

Friends of Maiti Nepal Executive Director Brigitte Cazalis Collins, along
with her husband, Associate Director Joe Collins, joined this struggle during
the 10 years they were living and working in Kathmandu. Brigitte and Joe bring
a profound understanding of Nepalese culture and politics to their work at
Friends of Maiti Nepal. They have spent time with Anuradha Koirala (Founder
of Maiti Nepal) and her girls, and have a very personal understanding of the
issues involved in helping girls who have become outcasts in their own country.
Joe Collins also brings his expertise from the international business
community, in which he has worked for the last 30 years.

In 2004, Friends of Maiti Nepal presented Awareness events and film screenings
at Brandeis University, at the First Church of Christ in Sandwich, Cape Cod, and
at the home of Joe and Brigitte Collins, among others.

In February, we visited Maiti’s Shelter and Administrative Center in Kathmandu
along with Laura Lederer, Trafficking Advisor for the US State Department. We
are working with the Maiti staff to create a U.S. adoption program for orphans at
the Kathmandu Shelter.

We began working with staff and trafficking survivors in Nepal to import products
made by Maiti girls, as a way to raise awareness and provide a means of
self-sufficiency to trafficking survivors.

Finally, we wrote grants to charitable foundations, and reached out to individual
donors, in an effort to assist Maiti Nepal in a nationwide prevention program they
are planning for 2005.

Upcoming activities of Friends of Maiti Nepal include a Nepalese Feast fundraiser,
speaking tours of women’s colleges and high schools, a visit to service sites in
Nepal, and a program to engage high school and college students in our
fundraising efforts, by having them sell items made by the women and girls
in Maiti Nepal shelters